We are interested in the interaction of the intangible and the tangible. Secrets and unsaid words have meaningful effects on social relationships. Culture becomes something more than the sum of individuals. Time allows water to shape the landscape. Wind moves leaves, wind chimes, hair, other wind. In the context of this installation, the tape loops contain the intangible—really, the material reality that we can’t directly observe or access (i.e. the magnetic particles that make up the recording)—but also the immediately tangible (i.e. the rotating loop of plastic that forms the structural basis for the tape). The tape loops run over resonant objects (strings, metal and PVC tubing, ceiling grid) in their transit. Their interaction is not a one-way causal relationship. As the tape loops play, they are also worn down by the resonant objects, forming an assemblage. The loops are faults, composed of visible and invisible strata, which gradually quake and disintegrate throughout the week.

Assembling the instruments involved some trial and error. We experimented with three different resonant bodies of material: copper, PVC, and particleboard. Copper, being the most resonant, was the basis for our inaugural attempt. The second instrument we constructed used a PVC tube as the resonant body. After making the second instrument we sought to involve the sound of the WaveCave as a resonance chamber. With that in mind, we built two 2’x2’ adjustable particleboard panels where we can suspend, loosen, and tighten the string from one wall to another. We also built an instrument which recontextualizes the suspension material as a sonic material by using the particleboard panel as a weight.

Sounds on the cassette tapes are made, in clockwise order from the left corner of the room, by Joe Hayes, Melanie Cowman, Woody Mo, Sofí Belén Jáquez, and Rocco Lc Williams. A special shoutout to Sofí, Alyson Zieg, Nic Cruz, Seamus Guy, and Clay Chaplin, without all of whom this installation would not be complete.